


Bringing the Heat

by blondsak



Series: tumblr fics - the series [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Peter Parker Makes Bad Jokes, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Protective Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Which Tony Does Not Appreciate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:44:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22961110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blondsak/pseuds/blondsak
Summary: Tony could see the window where Peter was still waiting for him. The kid had attempted to stand up only to end up on his knees, his arms hanging over the sill as he tried to lean out and breathe fresh air, smoke billowing out in waves behind him.Just then there was a huge explosion on the second floor, fire exploding out from every window, the building seeming to almost shiver as it quaked. Tony looked on in horror as the entire structure began to collapse, Peter still inside.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: tumblr fics - the series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649911
Comments: 32
Kudos: 397





	Bringing the Heat

**Author's Note:**

> Another re-posting for anyone who wants to bookmark the story individually. Enjoy!

The blaze was already tearing its way through every floor when Tony arrived, neck arched up as he looked over the span of the flames. According to Friday, the ten-story abandoned building in Queens had been converted into low-income apartments only four months earlier. Tony knew enough about the affiliated real estate company to guess they’d shirked on making sure the place was up to code. He just hoped there’d be enough evidence left behind to prove it once the raging fire had been put out. ****

It was sheer luck Tony happened to be nearby tonight, he and Pepper having come to the city to attend a charity gala. He was already going to grab breakfast with Peter at the kid’s favorite diner in the morning, but their plans to meet had been hastily moved up when Friday alerted Tony of the quickly rising temperature of the Spider-Man suit. With only a few words to Pepper, Tony had excused himself from the gala and flown off into the night.

Normally he would have just sent one of his NYC-based suits (stashed around every borough for just this very reason, not that Peter knew that), but fires were fast-moving and rarely followed reason and sometimes, the path that looked the _least_ safe was actually the best way to go. 

Better to have an actual human - _Tony_ \- there to find Peter and get him out before the shoddily-built structure collapsed and the kid was trapped, or worse. Speaking of - 

“Kid, where you at?” Tony called into his comm.

After a few moments Peter chirped in his ear, voice slightly scratchy, “Uh, seventh floor I think? Karen says there’s two people still up here but I’m having trouble seeing through all the smoke -“

The kid was cut off by his own coughing then, and Tony winced. “I’ll be right up.”

“No, Mister Stark, you gotta find the other person d-” _cough_ “-down below.”

Tony flipped his comm off.

“What other person? Fri?”

“Peter is correct, boss,” Friday replied. “I’m detecting a third civilian in the building on the fourth floor.”

“Damn it,” Tony muttered to himself, turning his comm back on. “Kid, you get those people out and then you _stay_ out, okay? I’ll get the other one.”

“Okay, Mister Stark!”

With Peter sorted, Tony flew up to the fourth floor, ignoring the cries of the police and firefighters that it was too dangerous as he blasted in through a window. 

Even with the suit, he quickly felt the heat. The fire was raging all around him, smoke was everywhere - they probably had only a few minutes before the metal infrastructure was compromised and the whole thing came toppling down.

“Fri, directions please, dear?”

“Yes boss. The human heat signature is down the hallway and to the right, apartment 422.”

Tony followed the AI’s instructions, kicking in the apartment door only to be met with a flurry of flames.

“Hello?” he called out. “This is Iron Man, come out!”

There was nobody in the entrance or the kitchen, and no answering call. 

“Fri?”

“In the far hallway, boss.”

Tony turned a corner and ran through the living room to a narrow hallway. There, on the floor in a ball, was an unconscious woman. The fire was licking at her as it spread down the walls, one of her pant-legs just starting to catch. Tony leaned over and snuffed out the flames, before lifting her into a fireman’s carry and making for one of the living room windows.

Holding on tightly, he crashed through the glass, mask lifting up a few moments later so he could breathe cool, clean air. There were shouts from the first responders and crowd below as he landed, gently putting her down on a gurney before she was taken away to an ambulance by paramedics. 

“Where’s Spider-Man?” he asked the closest firefighter.

The man shook his head in confusion. “We haven’t seen him since he went in.”

Tony’s eyes widened as he looked back up at the structure. It was a raging inferno now, more blaze than building. 

“Mister Stark, we can’t let you go back in, the place could collapse any-”

Tony didn’t hear the rest as his mask came back down and he blasted off, aiming for the seventh floor.

“Peter? Kid?” he yelled into the comm.

There was no answer for a few heart-stopping moments before he heard a crackling, followed by what sounded like a small child wailing in the background.

“Mister Stark, I found two kids but-” _cough_ “-we’re a little-” _cough cough_ “stuck?”

“What do you mean, stuck?”

“A beam-” _cough_ “-fell on us and I had to protect- “ _cough_ “- and then some-” _cough_ “-cement and-” 

The comm crackled with static for a few moments. 

“…down some stairs-” Two coughs, more static. “- both my ankles-” _cough_ “-broken.”

Tony’s heart-rate ratcheted up in panic as he ventured back in through a seventh floor window, Friday silently directing him toward Peter. 

Two broken ankles?The kid really had zero luck.

“Pete, I’m almost there. Hang on!”

If Peter answered it was lost as the comm just then went to full static. Tony cursed, but continued onward, putting the path across his visuals.

He was led down two hallways before he came to the end, the inner wall crumpled in, debris everywhere. He carefully flew over it to the other side, only to find a stairwell, ceiling beams laying all over at odd angles.

He went down one level and there, at the bottom of the sixth floor landing –

“Iron Man!” a girl who looked to be about fourteen cried. She was sitting on the ground, her arms wrapped around Peter’s torso. The kid was leaned up against a wall, a young toddler wrapped up in his arms and wearing the Spider-Man mask. Tony instantly deduced Peter had given it to the little boy so he could breathe through the mini-respirator inside. 

Tony came up to them and leaned down, doing a visual check on all three children. The two younger ones were scared and coughing but seemed relatively okay. It was only when he turned to his mentee that his worry amplified.

Peter’s eyes were red-rimmed from the prolonged exposure to the smoke and heat. His face was doused in sweat, and he had dark smudges under both nostrils where the smoke had clung. His suit was singed along his entire left flank and down his leg. Tony’s glance-over ended at his feet, and sure enough, both looked mangled. The suit hid the true extent of the damage but from the way the right ankle jutted out, Tony suspected a compound fracture. He looked back up to Peter’s face, only to find the kid giving him a reassuring smile even as he hacked his lungs up.

“H-hey, Mister Stark-” _cough_ “-what took you-” _cough cough_ “-so long?”

_This kid._

Tony ruffled Peter’s hair a bit before cupping his cheek, the suit’s bulky fingers covering half the kid’s face. “Is that any way to greet the person who’s come to save your ass?”

Peter gave a small laugh. “L-language. There are-” _cough_ “-children present.”

“Yeah, three of them by my count.”

“H-hey!”

Just then there was a crash as another beam fell a few floors up, crashing down the seventh floor stairwell before landing only a few feet away from the small group in a mess of dust and wiring. 

Tony quickly stood, turning back to Peter. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to take one kid in each arm and then you’re going to wrap yourself around the other side, and I’ll fly us all out.”

Peter shook his head. “T-take them f-first.”

Tony shook his head right back. “No can do, kid. I won’t leave you behind.”

Peter’s chin lifted, a steely determination in his eyes. “Your suit can’t-” _cough_ “-carry us all. Take them!”

“Friday?”

“Boss, the high temperatures have compromised your repulsor systems. If you take all three, there is a fifty-eight percent chance you will plummet upon exit.”

“Shit.”

More crashes and explosions below, then - “Boss, the building’s support is now severely damaged. I estimate 45 seconds before full structure collapse.”

_Shit!_

Tony didn’t respond to Friday, just leaned over and scooped a squawking Peter - still holding the toddler - into his arms.

“No, n-not me!”

Tony didn’t respond to Peter either, racing down the stairs to the fifth floor, the teenage girl clinging to one of his arms and shielding her face from the flames.

They burst out of the stairwell and down a hallway toward a window. Tony set Peter down before pulling the mask off the little boy’s head and hastily putting it back on Peter, who was still yelling at him. 

“Mister Stark, y-you can’t-”

“Shush, kid.”

“No-no-”

Tony smashed through the glass of the window, before leaning down and pulling the toddler out of Peter’s arms. 

“I know, kiddo,” he said softly. Because he did. He _did_ know, even if he hated it. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

Peter’s looked away as the building shook with another explosion, then back at Tony. The man didn’t need to see the teen’s face to know he was looking at him with complete trust. Tony only hoped he would live up to it. 

“Okay.”

With a final nod, Tony opened his free arm to the teenage girl, who wrapped herself around him, the toddler nestled in between. In just two seconds they were out of the building and heading down toward the first responders area, who Tony could see were all cheering. As soon as they landed the girl let go of him and he quickly handed over the little boy before blasting into the air once more. 

He could see the window where Peter was still waiting for him. The kid had attempted to stand up only to end up on his knees, his arms hanging over the sill as he tried to lean out and breathe fresh air, smoke billowing out in waves behind him.

Just then there was a huge explosion on the second floor, fire exploding out from every window, the building seeming to almost shiver as it quaked. Tony looked on in horror as the entire structure began to collapse, Peter still inside. 

_No!_

Tony, who had been flying up, quickly switched trajectories as the floors below collapsed one by one, trying to find a safe way to get close and pluck Peter out of the danger. But the building was already toppling, large chunks of stone and metal falling over themselves, and he couldn’t safely reach.

He could barely see the kid scrambling as he was tossed about, more jagged steel and heavy cement no doubt crashing all around him inside.

There was no time left, Tony desperately realized. But Peter was going to _die_ if Tony didn’t think of something right the fuck now, he had to do _something_ \- 

Tony lifted his arms outward, then screamed, “Kid, _shoot!_ ”

By some miracle, Peter both heard him and understood the command. Just as the fifth floor was about to fully collapse in on itself, Peter threw out an arm and shot a perfectly aimed web right into Tony’s waiting grip. As soon as Tony had a firm hold he threw his feet in front of him and his repulsors lit up, hurtling him backward as with a yank he pulled on the webbing.

The kid’s whole body was jerked out the window not a moment too soon, the hallway behind him crumbling, outer walls falling in on themselves as the last of the building collapsed into a giant heap of dust and fiery debris.

Tony swiveled his legs around, suddenly shooting forward where he met the kid halfway, their chests meeting as Tony wrapped Peter up in his arms.

“Friday, can you alert Cho and her team to meet us at the Manhattan medbay?” he asked softly.

“Already did, boss. They are awaiting your arrival.” 

“Atta girl,” Tony cooed as one metal hand unfurled and he slid his own underneath the back of the Spider-Man mask, running his fingers through Peter’s sweat-soaked curls. The kid was hacking now in earnest against his shoulder, struggling to take full breaths. Peter’s arms wrapped tighter around Tony’s chest as he turned away from the cheering crowd below and sped off toward the East River.

“I gotcha, kid,” he reassured. “Just focus on breathing.”

He felt a small nod into his neck as Peter coughed for another minute or so, before finally resting his forehead on the cool metal of the suit at Tony’s collarbone.

Tony smiled. The panic-fueled adrenaline was finally starting to wear off, leaving only exhausted relief in its wake.

Peter was injured but he’d be okay. Most importantly: he was _safe_. Which meant in Tony’s world, all was well.

“Hey, Mister Stark?”

“Yeah, underoos?”

“That was a _blazing_ good time, don’t you think?”

“Oh no, we are not doing that, Pete.”

“I’m just saying, I think we really brought the _heat_.”

“…kid, do you _want_ me to drop you?”


End file.
